Wow, was summer 2012 disappointing or what? Disastrous. Such promise, and there was almost zero follow through.
suspense
All posts tagged suspense
I’m probably one of the last people to read this series. I don’t normally like reading translations, ’cause I feel like something gets lost, but my mom sent me these two books (the third is not out in paperback yet, and I just got it today from the library), so I figured I should give them a try. Besides, the American version of the movie is coming out for Christmas with Daniel Craig, who’s totally yumtastic, so I have a good excuse.
Anya’s Ghost made Glen Weldon’s list of Five Recent Graphic Novels You Really Shouldn’t Miss, posted right before Comic Con. I tried to buy it at SDCC, but the publisher sold out. I finally got my copy yesterday.
Winner of the Eisner for Best New Series and Best Continuing Series.
I picked this up at Comic-Con after seeing Sharon get so excited about it. She got the omnibus, while I, being more cautious, got just volume 1. Now I wish I had gotten the omnibus.
Tony Chu is a cibopath, which means he can get clues or impressions off of anything he eats. So if he eats a fruit, he can sense if it got eaten by birds, or rained on, or whatever. But when he eats something animal… or human… then he can see who they were, how they died, etc. Needless to say, he tries to stay vegetarian as much as possible.
It’s also a different world, where bird flu has wiped out most of the chickens, and they are now highly illegal and on the black market. People will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to eat chicken.
The book’s a tad gory, because he does use his power to help him with his detective work, which can get a bit tricky, especially if people find you chomping down the criminal to find out more about him.
But it’s also pretty darn funny. There are little hilarious details, like the porn mags on the floor have titles like “Nasty Grannies” or you can order “Fat” off the fast food menu.
It’s hard to go into much detail, ’cause I don’t like spoiling stuff. But he does meet and get a crush on a saboscrivener, which is someone who can write about food so well, you can taste it. So, if the food reviewer (which is what she does) goes to a great restaurant, you can taste how good the food is as you read the review. However… if she goes to a horrible restaurant… well…
The art’s pretty good; I like Guillory’s style. Tony is Chinese-American, but he’s not stereotypically Chinese, which I think is pretty awesome. It seems the writer and the artist both wanted to do this.
Volume 1 has a nice twist at the end, too, which makes me super excited to read more. Like NOW.
Anyway, as soon as I can figure out the damage to my bank account from Comic-Con and my car accident, I can order the omnibus from Amazon, which will cost the same as ordering volumes 2 & 3, which is what the omnibus covers. This will be done ASAP.
The author said this series will go on for 60 volumes, which means 12 graphic novel collections, or 4 omnibuses.
